Toyota Motor Corporation announced the beginning of verification testing of its newly developed wireless charging system. Testing will commence in late February in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Three Prius plug-ins, fitted with a 2 kW receiver, will be able to recharge in 90 minutes.

A trick feature is that Intelligent Parking Assist is coupled with wireless charging, which means that car can not only park itself, but will park exactly in the right position to maximize efficiency.

Test car with wireless vehicle charging system

“The charging system uses magnetic-resonance technology, which transmits electricity by utilizing the magnetic resonance resulting from changes in magnetic field intensity between a coil on the ground that transmits and a coil on the vehicle that receives. The system can reduce drops in power transmission efficiency that can be caused by misalignment or height differences between the transmitting coil and receiving coil. Created with future market launch in mind, the system is designed to minimize electromagnetic interference on nearby equipment and the ground-installed transmitting coil is robustly structured to withstand a vehicle driving over it.”

The ultimate goal for Toyota is to commercialize such a system and this is probably why the Japanese company is investing in WiTricity

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I like the two-tone color on that one. Seriously, though.. while this technology is “neat” it really doesn’t serve much purpose in my opinion. Give us more range on the PiP if you want to impress us, Toyota!

Because it will be the norm.
Because handeling a wet and dirty handle and cord is temporary.
Because handicap people (like me) like the idea of not having to plugin, that SPX cord is heavy to pull when you walk with two canes.
Because electric starters replaced the HANDCRANK a few years back!
Because i dont want to imagine a mall parking lot full of charging stations with cords all over the place creating tripping hazards.
Because wireless will look cleaner.
Because vandals wont have a target.
Because, it’s probably the only outcome.
isnt nextgen Leaf to get plugless?
You really, really, really think the plug will win over plugless in the futur?!??

Also the wireless standard has been defined, so no CHademo vs SAE charger battles.

I’ll add to Driverguy’s list.

* I hate trying to pry the port cover open in the winter when its covered in ice
* I don’t like getting wet in the rain while trying to coil up a muddy cable.
* I don’t like getting back out of my car because I forgot to unplug.
* I don’t like getting back out of my car because I forgot to close the charge port.
* I don’t like not having a full charge in the morning because I forgot to plug in.
* I don’t like having to fiddle w/the plug when my hands are full of groceries
* I don’t like to have to rely on a device that is repeatedly mechanically stressed (wear & tear) vs a non-contact device.

My problem is that it doesn’t add much benefit to the majority of the people. Yet, it has the potential to slow EV growth. We already have too many competing charging standards as it is. And adding this feature to a car costs extra money. I’d rather not try to throw an extra hurdle into the mix right now for getting public charging station infrastructure built out.

There are definite positives to wireless charging (stated already). But there are also some drawbacks:

There will always be some loss in power between the transmitter and the receiver. Every state conversion (from electricity to magnetic field back to electricity) induces some loss. So from a well-to-wheels standpoint, plugging in is more efficient. Not grossly so, but at least 1% more efficient (based on my memory that the current gold standerd for wireless charging is 95-97% efficiency).

You cannot “take the plug” once a wireless charging car is full. The installation ratio of charging stations to cars has to be 1:1 unless you can incent people to move after they are full.

Those drawbacks aside, developments like this can only spur plugin adoption, so I am for it! But please keep installing plugin EVSEs too, so I can charge my old Leaf 🙂

In time, I think wireless charging will be the preferred public charging method. For some people with garages that charge primarily overnight, plugging in works just fine as well. Down the road, I would really like to see charging embedded in some highways for longer, faster trips 😀 BTW Toyota, build us a vehicle that uses the battery as its primary power, large enough to meet most people’s daily needs and use your ICE primarily for longer trip needs.

On the long run, l keep thinking we are going to have a high power under the car secured contacts system. This will happen for the followinh reasons:

A contact system on a little bump can be made secured
There are no yield losses associated with it
It is simple metal contacts so it is immune to vandalism
It is not imposing a receiver coil weight on the car
It is CHEAPER
It allow very high power up to the megawatt level
It doesn’t pose any magnetic field hasard
It gives exactly the same no intervention advantage as wireless

From what I have read, there are no magnetic field hazards with wireless charging and wireless has the ability to charge faster than 2Kw, I think it is more about what the battery is capable of accepting. With wireless you don’t need a clean surface to make the connection. I think you can even embed the transmitter under the surface and weather conditions are not a concern like direct contact methods could be.

The clean surface of the contacts is something that comes back frequently but it has his own solution.
The contacts are above a small bump so they are not in the water and the frequent arrivals of a car will cause the car contacts to brush away any dust that could be standing on there.